Armory Square

Armory Square is one of the few bright spots downtown. Its resurgence has been a small success story, but much of the credit belongs to business owners rather than city government.

Armory Square was named after the New York State armory that served as its central anchor. The oval was known as Regimental Park in the late 19th century.

The Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology moved into the Armory after Governor Mario Cuomo authorized the sale of the building to the MDA for $1. However, it was reported in the Post-Standard on 12/15/04 that the museum has suffered operating losses since at least 1994. The paper even reported the museum had been "teetering on the edge of insolvency for two years" and desperately needed $200,000 from the state to avoid shutting down. ("County hangs on to MOST grant money," May 27, 2002)

The change from Armory Square to downtown is abrupt. Apartments in historic Hogan Block on Fayette Street look north onto a gravel parking lot and the Atrium Parking Garage, which still wears the faded green corrugated metal it has worn for decades. The 300 block of South Clinton Street is like Warren and Salina with its empty upper floors. The hulking Butler building, which among other things formerly housed the Museum of Science and Technology, had its third through fifth floors vacant for decades. The building is now being converted to high-end apartments, like many downtown spaces that have outlived their commercial usefulness. On its western border, the neighborhood immediately transitions after the elevated railroad tracks from well-heeled gentrification to fading industrial neighborhood and deteriorating houses.

Hawthorne Suites is a sparkling hotel functioning as the eastern gateway to the revived district, but the city had to take a huge financial hit to get it renovated. The building was constructed in 1928 as the Hotel Jefferson-Clinton. Around 1981, it took on the name of the then-new Carrier Dome but closed five years later. David R. of Syracuse says, "That hotel had gone to seed by 1980." It cost the city roughly $300,000 to acquire the building, which had remained vacant and boarded up for more than a decade. It finally sold the building to Hawthorne Suites for $30,000 -- a tenth of the amount it paid. Hawthorn renovated and reopened the hotel 15 years after it closed.

OnTrack was unveiled to much fanfare in September 1994. Three restored Budd Rail Diesel cars originally built in the early 1950s were run on the old DL&W (Delaware, Lackawanna and Western) tracks on the west side of downtown. Touted as a scenic link between Downtown and Carousel Center, it was to have been a significant part of the city center's transportation infrastructure. However, after some initial success due to a large advertising campaign and the novelty of a local passenger railroad, passenger volume has tailed off significantly. Ontrack has admitted that it normally has only 60 passengers a day, a tiny fraction of the 500 per day that it needs to break even. With its limited number of stations along a single set of tracks, Ontrack is strictly a recreational railroad. Commuters shun the railroad especially since it runs only three days -- only one of which is during the workweek --and does not run during the morning rush hours.

Both the ticket counter and gift shop at the renovated Susquehanna station have been closed and operating hours have been slashed. In the summer of 2005, only one train ran, making eight round trips only on Saturdays between Syracuse University and Carousel Center. As of late 2005, schedule information was no longer available on Ontrack's website.

Through 2005, OnTrack has received some $8 million in state grants to support operations. Another $3 million in federal funds to beautify its bridges over West Genesee Street and Erie Boulevard West was provided in 2002 by Congressman James Walsh. Those funds are unspent as Ontrack disputes their purpose. Walsh's office earmarked it for beautification, but Ontrack claims they are strictly for structural modifications to increase the clearance beneath the bridges.

The company that runs OnTrack, New York Susquehanna & Western Railroad, is owned by Walter Rich. Aside from the $8 million in state grants to OnTrack, Rich also received another $8 million in state funds in 2001 and 2002 to start service between Syracuse and Binghamton. The service never began. ("Money came, passenger service didn't," Syracuse Post-Standard, 10/17/04)

One group that would not mourn the passing of Ontrack is the residents of Clinton Plaza, a high-rise apartment building for middle-income families and senior citizens administered under the Mitchell-Lama program. Clinton Plaza sits next to the Ontrack rails and station. Residents complained in past years that Ontrack trains were a constant source of noise and pollution, with diesel engines often idling overnight at the station.

In 2005, the county announced that it planned to begin construction in 2007 of a sewage and runoff treatment plant close to Armory Square. Business owners were aghast at the plan. The Syracuse Post-Standard ridiculed it, sarcastically wondering if this was how civic leaders thought they could make downtown more attractive. Debbie S. of Syracuse wondered if the $74 million cost of the plant would be included in figures City Hall uses to tout financial investment in downtown.